Rich Beem

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RICH BEEM - PAGE 4

Believe it or not, the official 2002 golf season isn't over. The LPGA is wrapping things up with its ADT Tour Championship this weekend. It's fitting that the women get the last shot at the spotlight. They had a big year. No player dominated the game more than Annika Sorenstam. No individual created more noise, controversy or debate--pick one--than Martha Burk. Throw in Nancy Lopez playing her final full season, Connecticut teaching pro Suzy Whaley qualifying for next year's men's Greater Hartford Open and the LPGA returning to Chicago, and women dominated the headlines.

The Glen Club's priority is to be a first-class facility for its members and daily-fee players. But the course also was designed with the intention of staging top tournaments. So there was more than a little apprehension Monday for the first round of the Illinois Open. It was the first test to see how the 1 1/2-year-old Glenview club would fare under tournament conditions. Glen Club passed. The scores were respectable, but not super low. The players also raved about architect Tom Fazio's layout.

By F. Richard Ciccone. F. Richard Ciccone is a former managing editor of the Tribune, the author of "Chicago and the American Century" and an avid golfer who refuses to divulge his handicap | February 11, 2001

BUD, SWEAT AND TEES: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour By Alan Shipnuck Simon & Schuster, 288 pages, $24 This is the time of year when golfers whose back yards are covered with snow begin to twitch and sit in front of the TV set curling their fingers around an imaginary club while watching the world's greatest players stroll over the lush courses of Hawaii and the desert Southwest. There is never much to get excited about in the early rounds of the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods continued his dominance at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, winning the Hawaii tournament for the fifth straight time with a tournament-record 11-under 61 Wednesday to finish the 36-hole event at a record 17-under 127. He won by 14 strokes over Justin Leonard and Davis Love III. PGA champion Rich Beem finished 18 shots back. - The Tradition, one of senior golf's four major championships, will move from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Aloha, Ore., next year.

Davis Love III made it through 36 holes on Monday to qualify for his 18th consecutive trip to the U.S. Open. But Fred Couples wasn't so fortunate. Love's streak of 70 consecutive majors ended when he failed to qualify for the Masters but he was one of 23 players at the sectional in Columbus, one of 13 qualifying sites, to earn a June 12-15 trip to Torrey Pines in San Diego. Couples, who had said this might be the last time he tries to qualify, missed by two shots. Billy Andrade also failed to qualify.

GOLF: Scottsdale, Ariz., resident Michael Allen gave his hometown gallery plenty to cheer about, matching his career-low round with a 7-under 63 to take the first-round lead in the Fry's Electronics Open. Nick Watney, Rich Beem and Frank Lickliter II were two strokes back. TENNIS: No. 1 Roger Federer, who lost to Guillermo Canas in consecutive tournaments last March, had no trouble with the No. 14 Argentine on Thursday, winning 6-0, 6-3 in the third round of the Madrid Masters.

Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal failed to qualify for the British Open on Monday when he took bogey on the third hole of a playoff. Olazabal has been struggling with fatigue after returning in March from seven months out with rheumatism. "I'm going home to take a rest," said Olazabal, third at St. Andrews three years ago. "Because it's the Open it was a good reason to come, but it was basically a test for me. I haven't played at all and can't practice much, so I wasn't expecting great things."

Dan Forsman, taking advantage of an early tee time on the wind-swept English Turn course at New Orleans, shot a 7-under-par 65 Thursday to take the first-round lead by two shots in the Compaq Classic. "We started first, and there was no doubt that was a definite advantage because there was still some moisture on the ground," Forsman said. "I think the big difference [in the] afternoon is that [the greens] are so hard and baked that it's treacherous around the hole." Forsman, who won the last of his four PGA Tour titles in 1992, had only 24 putts.